Kulai District

The Kulai District is a district in the state of Johor, Malaysia. Its district capital is Kulai Town. It covers Kulai Town, Ayer Bemban, Bandar Putra Kulai, Bukit Batu, Indahpura, Bandar Baru Kangkar Pulai, Kelapa Sawit, Saleng, Sedenak, Seelong, Senai, and Sengkang. Kulai is also within Iskandar Malaysia economic zone. Name The district was formerly a part of the Pulai Valley, which covered Mukim Pulai and the current subdistrict. The name Kulai 龟来, which means turtles are coming, was a Chinese mispronounciation of Pulai. Chinese Hakka peoples led by a man named Huang Guo Mao emigrated to Johor from Qing China during the late 19th century and opened a settlement in the area, and had renamed the place after the influx of turtles coming to the area after heavy flooding. Geography Kulai is one of three landlocked districts of Johor (the other two being Kluang and Segamat) with an area of , which is slightly smaller than the size of Singapore, a sovereign country situated approximately to the south of the district. It has a population of 223,306 at the 2010 Census (provisional result). It has a mix of urban and rural settlements with a majority of the population settling in towns near Johor Bahru. These population centers, such as Kulai and Senai effectively became suburbs of the greater metropolitan area in Kulai district. History